Community Programs

Community Service

Youth Workforce Development

School Engagement

Restitution Monitoring & Accountability

Mission: The Community Programs mission is to partner and provide direct service to enhance education, community service, employment and victim restitution opportunities for court-involved youth. This is accomplished through developing strong partnerships and leveraging community resources to serve over 400 high-risk youth offenders each year.

Since 1982, the Community Programs Unit has been the foundation for developing workforce and education partnerships through collaboration with the community and adding valued resources for at-risk youth.

The projects under Community Programs promote balanced and restorative justice by building youth competency, advancing youth connections with community, restoring harm they have caused, and providing developmental skills.

The outcomes of the interventions are measured by the impact they have on raising protective factors or assets that help the young person grow to be a responsible and productive adult.

Workforce Development

Community Programs helps court-involved youth gain the basic work training skills needed to enter the workforce.

The Vocation, Education, Service, Training (VEST) Program provides assessment, pre-employment skills training, community service, and paid work experience internships throughout King County. It is the foundation for leveraging additional resources to expand programming.

The Rainier Valley Youth Service Project provides educational programming, community service, and work training opportunities for court-involved youth in south Seattle.

The New Start Project partners with the King County Work Training Program, Highline School District, and the White Center community to provide alternative education and work training opportunities in southeast King County.

The Minority Business and Youth Alliance partners with women and minority-owned businesses to link court-involved youth with internships with small businesses in King County.

Green Pathways is a movement and county-wide partnership to engage at-risk and court-involved youth to promising careers in emerging green training and occupations.

School Engagement & Truancy Interventions

The program partners with school districts and other programs to provide drop-out intervention services and positive school engagement opportunities. It provides support for youth having school attendance problems in select school districts.

PathNet Drop-Out Intervention is a Systems Integration initiative to re-engage out-of-school court-involved youth with the most appropriate education and training programs to reach educational goals. The program provides one-stop youth assessment and placement at the Renton Youth Source Center, and serves 100 out-of-school youth per year.

Victim Restitution

This program monitors and enforces victim restitution obligations of youth no longer on supervision. Youth that are late with victim restitution payments are offered employment preparation skills through monthly workshops. The Community Programs Unit can provide youth with stipends for competency development, connection to workforce skills training, and opportunities to enter the workforce to meet their legal financial obligations.

The unit is developing a victim awareness program to instill an understanding of the impact of crime on individuals and the community. Community Programs collects over $90,000.00 in restitution each year

Our Success

Community Programs has made it possible for hundreds of court-involved youth to re-engage in school, enter vocational training, enter the workforce, provide meaningful community service, and pay back victim restitution.

Much of this success comes from partnerships with public and private sector businesses, youth service providers, and community support.

Youth who complete the variety of services in Community Programs walk away with an increased understanding of themselves and their community. They also gain valuable skills to assist in their development as productive adults.

Major Partners

King County Department of Community and Human Services

King County Work Training Program

Seattle King County Workforce Development Council

Puget Sound Educational Service District

King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention Work Crew

King County Office of Business Relations and Economic Development

Southeast Seattle Effective Development

Rainier Chamber of Commerce

Highline School District

How You Can Become Involved

Provide job shadowing, career exploration opportunity with your business. Youth observe and write a report on various occupations as they explore the worlds of work.

Provide a community service project. Provide a public work project giving youth an opportunity to improve their community.

Provide a work experience site. Youth can be paid by the program for up to 100 hours of real work experience in a public or private business.